HEART BURN

(Image from curingheartburn.blogspot.com)

Apart from the added weight, someone I know has been suffering lately from heartburn even if the holiday season is over.

Heartburn is also commonly known as reflux, attributed mostly to stress. Certainly, the rushing to and fro in traffic-congested roads, all that shopping and partying, plus the motley of food and drinks imbibed---all these must be too much for our system to bear, so we turn acidic and "burn".

Our cells subsisting on acidic environment is a prescription for disease. Not a pretty picture, huh.

I'm praying for a heartburn of another kind.

Jesus' disciples experienced it after He rose from the dead. They were distraught when He died on the cross and was eventually buried. The one whom they believed would save Israel seemed to have been forever sealed in a tomb. Oh yes, Jesus told them in advance that on the third day, He would rise again. But that assurance seemed to have faded away as soon as they went their separate ways after His burial.

Their faith was at its lowest. Then on the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared and explained God's plan. Later as they broke bread together, their eyes were opened as hey beheld Jesus the risen Lord.

After He left, they asked one another in Luke 24:32: "Were not our hearts burning within us when He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

Does your heart still burn when you read the bible and discover something new even in the verses you may have read time and again before, and these words become so alive you can actually hold on to them like they were your sustenance for the day or the week even?

Does your heart still burn when you read of Christ's great love, His suffering on our behalf on the cross to ransom us from sin and death?

Does your heart still burn when you realize that this very life you're enjoying today is because of His amazing grace, translated: amazing love, amazing peace, amazing joy, amazing provisions, amazing victory over problems which may be besetting you today?

Does your heart still burn when in spite of discouragements and you being on the verge of giving up, you are bathed with His irresistible grace--so that you have no choice but to humble yourself before Him, cast your cares unto Him, and expect Him to either change your attitude or the situation?

Is your faith at its lowest today? Jesus the risen Lord caught the disciples just at the right time--when their faith was ebbing away.

Jesus caught me that way today, and He assured me, "Believe in me. I have everything under control. You are my child and I will never leave you or forsake you. The battle is not yours but mine."

Praise God for this heartburn.